As the Indian market keeps on growing, do you guys think there will be room for another airline to appear?

No, airlines in India have virtually no pricing power. There are too many airlines with little differentiation among them fighting for the same passengers. The market needs a round of consolidation.

I have to agree. There is Air India, Jet, Indigo, Spicejet, Go Air, Vistara, and Air Asia. There is probably room for 4 or maybe 5. Consolidation will happen.

The market will grow. But until there are fewer entrants, yield will be poor.

I didn't mean for another airline to be set up next year or the year after. What I am wondering if there might be room for a new player, not necessarily in DEL or BOM, but maybe in another market. India's passenger growth has been spectacular and I have a feeling it will continue in the future. By the way, how is domestic connectivity? Are Indian cities interlinked?

Whether the import of ATF is truly non-essential is a debatable topic, but I believe Indian refiners produce most of the ATF required on-shore. So, the move might just be aimed at incentivizing on-shore production. But it'll certainly add to the upward pressure on price in the short term.

Whether the import of ATF is truly non-essential is a debatable topic, but I believe Indian refiners produce most of the ATF required on-shore. So, the move might just be aimed at incentivizing on-shore production. But it'll certainly add to the upward pressure on price in the short term.

Wow. Just wow. All time? I assume this is because before fuel was priced as a government service? Any link on the history is appreciated.

This will hurt widebody opperations significantly. Oh man... Normally I dispute trigger words like bloodbath, not in this context.

Lightsaber

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Whether the import of ATF is truly non-essential is a debatable topic, but I believe Indian refiners produce most of the ATF required on-shore. So, the move might just be aimed at incentivizing on-shore production. But it'll certainly add to the upward pressure on price in the short term.

Less than 1% of ATF consumed in India last year was imported, so this duty is unlikely to increase prices.

Vistara increases frequency on Delhi-Hyderabad route to 4x daily with an additional flight wef 11NOV18. The aircraft will be parked at HYD. This route is served more than 25x daily by various carriers.

Whether the import of ATF is truly non-essential is a debatable topic, but I believe Indian refiners produce most of the ATF required on-shore. So, the move might just be aimed at incentivizing on-shore production. But it'll certainly add to the upward pressure on price in the short term.

Wow. Just wow. All time? I assume this is because before fuel was priced as a government service? Any link on the history is appreciated.

This will hurt widebody opperations significantly. Oh man... Normally I dispute trigger words like bloodbath, not in this context.

Whether the import of ATF is truly non-essential is a debatable topic, but I believe Indian refiners produce most of the ATF required on-shore. So, the move might just be aimed at incentivizing on-shore production. But it'll certainly add to the upward pressure on price in the short term.

Less than 1% of ATF consumed in India last year was imported, so this duty is unlikely to increase prices.

Thanks and you are correct. I just validated the numbers and the import quantities are ultra minuscule. This duty will not have any mentionable impact on the price and it appears to have been applied to discourage or completely eliminate such imports - in this case, it's truly a non-essential import. I apologize for the incorrect conclusion earlier.

All in all, it is going to be very messy if IndiGo goes ahead with the launch of the route this winter. They are on a tight schedule. This is because of a few reasons.

They will receive one Airbus A321neo ACF which won’t be enough to start the route. Two more will join soon after but it’s still a small fleet to operate such a long route. If they had to de-roster an aircraft due to various reasons, then where will they get a replacement aircraft? The Pratt Whitney Engine troubles would be one reason.

Again, are there enough planes to do a daily flight in the first place? Just flying one aircraft to and from London, IndiGo would be asking for too much? Given they also have a tech stop on this flight.

Are the planes even coming in on time? Some people expect these to be delivered in November 2018. Others don’t expect the aircraft to be arriving before March 2019.

Airbus A321neo ACF will be a new variant or subtype in IndiGo’s fleet. Even though it is similar to the Airbus A320neo that IndiGo operates, but it still is a new addition. It is yet to be proven in IndiGo’s fleet. The aircraft will have to get DGCA approval, will have to do crew familiarisation and proving flights.

London is going to be a new base for them. While that shouldn’t stop them from launching a flight, there are all sorts of things they look out for, and perhaps new flight with the new plane is not top of the list

Kuala Lumpur is an interesting destination for Indigo. Air India could not make it work nor with Air Indian Express. Malaysian carriers dominate these routes due to extensive onward connections. If pricing is right, Indigo can make it work. There is quite a big Indian disapora in Malaysia

Previously (a week back at max) SG had stated that they were the 1st airline to launch this virgin route. Seems like 6E has jumped the bandwagon and announced BLR UDR flight 1 week b4 SG. Seems like last minute as its not even mentioned on their Website under 'new Flights' section.

IndiGo is adding 120,000+ monthly seats in BLR in November. This comes after adding 100,000+ seats in August. Looks like IndiGo is on a mission to capture every possible slot at BLR.

Is a Bangalore slot a big deal? I remember reading a couple of months ago (maybe right here) that for a couple of hours during peak times, slots were full or close to full, but the rest of the day looked wide open. Have schedules grown so much in a few months?

Is a Bangalore slot a big deal? I remember reading a couple of months ago (maybe right here) that for a couple of hours during peak times, slots were full or close to full, but the rest of the day looked wide open. Have schedules grown so much in a few months?

No, not at all. Plenty of slots are still available and with the second runway scheduled to come online in a year's time BLR will have slots available for years to come. The issue is the non availability of slots at both DEL and BOM so airlines are expanding at BLR and HYD.

IndiGo is adding 120,000+ monthly seats in BLR in November. This comes after adding 100,000+ seats in August. Looks like IndiGo is on a mission to capture every possible slot at BLR.

Is a Bangalore slot a big deal? I remember reading a couple of months ago (maybe right here) that for a couple of hours during peak times, slots were full or close to full, but the rest of the day looked wide open. Have schedules grown so much in a few months?

IndiGo is adding 120,000+ monthly seats in BLR in November. This comes after adding 100,000+ seats in August. Looks like IndiGo is on a mission to capture every possible slot at BLR.

Is a Bangalore slot a big deal? I remember reading a couple of months ago (maybe right here) that for a couple of hours during peak times, slots were full or close to full, but the rest of the day looked wide open. Have schedules grown so much in a few months?

Hope this helps

Thanks. A lot more crowded than I had remembered, especially in the totals column.

Is a Bangalore slot a big deal? I remember reading a couple of months ago (maybe right here) that for a couple of hours during peak times, slots were full or close to full, but the rest of the day looked wide open. Have schedules grown so much in a few months?

Hope this helps

Thanks. A lot more crowded than I had remembered, especially in the totals column.

No problem, but I forgot to mention that the NAC as u see here is for 38 ATM/hr (Air Traffic Movement/hr) for the current RWY. The ATMs will go up from the 38 to 44/hr by SS'19 and remains 44 till the 2nd RWY opens around OCT-DEC 2019. Once the 2nd RWY opens up the 1st RWY will stay at 44/hr and 2nd RWY will have a max ATM of 55/hr.

Post the signing of Open Skies agreement between India and Sri Lanka UL had a raft of new route launches and capacity increases in existing routes. It is now time for capacity correction: 3x weekly VTZ will be dropped this winter.

Air India is weighing adding a Tel Aviv-Mumbai fight to its schedule. Air India would initially charge $250 each way on the Tel Aviv-Mumbai route and was weighing boosting the number of flights on its Tel Aviv-Delhi run to five a week.

Air India is weighing adding a Tel Aviv-Mumbai fight to its schedule. Air India would initially charge $250 each way on the Tel Aviv-Mumbai route and was weighing boosting the number of flights on its Tel Aviv-Delhi run to five a week.

Is Air India using its existing slots at Mumbai for the flights recently announced ? Asking because all of a sudden they've announced multiple new flights to FRA , JFK , LHR , TLV from BOM this month . One good thing is if AI really wants to bring back BOM to a proper hub status , their Africa network can be restored .

Air India is weighing adding a Tel Aviv-Mumbai fight to its schedule. Air India would initially charge $250 each way on the Tel Aviv-Mumbai route and was weighing boosting the number of flights on its Tel Aviv-Delhi run to five a week.

Air India is weighing adding a Tel Aviv-Mumbai fight to its schedule. Air India would initially charge $250 each way on the Tel Aviv-Mumbai route and was weighing boosting the number of flights on its Tel Aviv-Delhi run to five a week.

Is Air India using its existing slots at Mumbai for the flights recently announced ? Asking because all of a sudden they've announced multiple new flights to FRA , JFK , LHR , TLV from BOM this month . One good thing is if AI really wants to bring back BOM to a proper hub status , their Africa network can be restored .

And there are like 8 new routes starting from Bombay in October. So getting no new slots should not be an excuse for Jet Airways B787

One thing I'm unable to figure out The partnership of BA and UK ( which I expected to be something like 9W AF KL) is something different . Vistara codeshares only on DEL LHR flights and BA codeshares on all Vistara's ex DEL flights . BA already has non stops from five Indian cities so there isn't any need for them to codeshare on DEL- BOM/BLR/HYD/MAA . Or is BA's DEL LHR not performing upto the mark and so BA needs a feeder airline?

Indeed STV has a very long way to go b4 any EU carrier arrives. For now they shud be happy and look forward to the GCC connections like SHJ/AUH/DXB. Maybe 9W can do 3x or 5x weekly STV-AUH to help Surtis connect to the rest of the world.

One thing I'm unable to figure out The partnership of BA and UK ( which I expected to be something like 9W AF KL) is something different . Vistara codeshares only on DEL LHR flights and BA codeshares on all Vistara's ex DEL flights . BA already has non stops from five Indian cities so there isn't any need for them to codeshare on DEL- BOM/BLR/HYD/MAA . Or is BA's DEL LHR not performing upto the mark and so BA needs a feeder airline?

What is so hard to understand? It is going to put butts in the seats for BA, so they can market LHR-LKO/PNQ/IXC(etc...) and UX had W/J seats, so they can provide a similar experience. Same for UX it puts butts in the seats on DEL-LKO/PNQ/IXC(etc...). AI/QR/EK/9W is certainly flying many of those new codeshare routes as one stops from LHR and that was putting BA at a disadvantage. This is a win/win. Hopefully, something like this between UX and AA will get AA back to India.

Is Air India using its existing slots at Mumbai for the flights recently announced ?

To my knowledge, BOM issues new slots for Int'l ops and not for domestic. So all the new domestic routes are just being swapped over from existing slots of airlines, and the int'l are new ones from the very limited slots available at the airport.

So airlines are keen to add int'l ops but they don't get decent timings, something like DXB issue.

Indeed STV has a very long way to go b4 any EU carrier arrives. For now they shud be happy and look forward to the GCC connections like SHJ/AUH/DXB. Maybe 9W can do 3x or 5x weekly STV-AUH to help Surtis connect to the rest of the world.

I know of two surti's who live in Minneapolis. They were asking for a non stop flight from STV to MSP. I hope you start championing it

Beware! Next these WWWAS Morons will start tagging UA/DL/AA for NON STOP Surat-US flights & providing fake/madeup pax numbers to ToI journalists and then saying the usual dialogue "30-40% of BOM traffic is from STV".

That would be fun though and was my intent . I can't think of a better way to stop this non sense.

BOM's population is 4 times Surat's population and has a higher per capita income. While BOM may get catchment traffic from STV, it is not the driver of BOM 's status. And whatever traffic that BOM gets from STV or BDQ is likely to be in the back of the plane.

BOM, DEL are the two cities in India that have high demand for first class. BLR is not even close, forget about other cities.

Trust me.. I have already seen a few of the comments on the group asking for AMS/BRU/JFK flights with routing like DEL-STV-AMS-YYZ. These WWWAS were the same group of guys who at 1 point of time... maybe 12-18 months ago absolutely Hated ALL the indian airlines except Spicejet, as SG was planning ops at that time. Now couple of the group "LOVES" Indigo and already calling it a home carrier. Its hilarious group and I personally have a lot of fun seeing the comments. Ah well, end of the day its just NOISE and Im waiting for the day when the ppl from that group start PROVING with facts about ANYTHING they say. That is 1 cringe worthy group to say the least. But yeah its fun to watch Most of them become "FLIGHT PLANNERS" in the comments section of their FB page.